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Attorney General Loretta Lynch listens as President Barack Obama speaks in the Oval Office on Monday, Jan. 4, during a meeting with law enforcement officials to discuss executive actions the president can take to curb gun violence. | AP Photo

Obama rolls out gun control strategy

As the president wades into the culture war over guns, he is planning a series of events aimed at containing the political fallout.

The White House unveiled President Barack Obama’s executive actions on gun violence on Monday as part of a multiday rollout meant to contain the political fallout and to cast Obama as the voice of common sense in a raging culture war.

“These are not only recommendations that are well within my legal authority and the executive branch, but they’re also ones that the overwhelming majority of the American people, including gun owners, support me doing," Obama told reporters after an Oval Office meeting on Monday with his top law enforcement officials.

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According to the White House, the actions include a more detailed definition of which gun sellers must apply for a federal dealers license — and therefore conduct background checks for all sales, in a bid to close the so-called gun show loophole. The administration is also finalizing a few other rules that were stuck in a bureaucratic backlog, including new requirements for reporting guns lost or stolen in transit, and a measure that would allow more mental health records to be submitted to the federal background check registry by removing patient privacy limits.

The FBI is also adding 230 agents devoted to processing background checks — a 50 percent increase — as it moves toward automating the system.

As Obama made his case for moving forward with the new proposals, the juxtaposing imagery on cable TV couldn't have been better for the White House. Within minutes of his remarks, networks aired images illustrating what the president sees as some of the types of problems caused by the proliferation of guns: Texans strapped with AK-47s at a deli counter and armed ranchers occupying a federal refuge in Oregon.

The other side sees a different picture, with GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump warning that Obama’s actions are just another step on the path to banning guns completely and House Speaker Paul Ryan predicting a “dangerous level of executive overreach.”

The series of gun-related events this week represents one of Obama's largest pushes on gun control since the collapse of the effort that followed the 2012 Sandy Hook mass shooting. Although Obama has issued more than 20 executive actions designed to curb gun violence, the country has continued to grapple with mass shootings that have only resulted in increased gun sales.

Obama said he's "confident" that the proposals are "entirely consistent with the Second Amendment."

The White House is eager to fend off political attacks and exaggerations from gun rights advocates, so the president is preparing an unusual public campaign to explain his moves. On Monday, he met with Attorney General Loretta Lynch, FBI Director James Comey and the head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. He will hold a White House ceremony to announce the measures on Tuesday. And on Thursday, Obama partners with CNN for an hourlong town hall to discuss gun violence in prime time.

Obama has a tricky task: convincing gun control advocates that his actions will make a difference, while reassuring gun-owning Americans that he’s not infringing on their Second Amendment rights and that they should push their members of Congress to pass legislation that would have broader reach.

“It is my strong belief that for us to get our complete arms around the problem, Congress needs to act,” Obama reiterated Monday.

“It’s obvious, the way that they are rolling out this issue, that the presidentand staff understand how politically difficult it’s going to be, and they are demonstrating that they are willing to do everything they can to try and sell it to the American people,” said Jim Manley, a former top communications aide to the Democrats’ leader in the Senate, Harry Reid.

“Over the years a lot of smart strategists can point to a lot of people who have lost elections over gun control,” Manley said. “The administration is not taking any chances.”

While Obama cannot unilaterally required universal background checks, top administration officials predicted the new guidelines would sweep in all but the most casual sellers. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms will issue new guidelines about what it means to be “engaged in the business” of selling guns, rather than merely selling them as a hobby. It’s part of a bid to step up enforcement of background check rules not only at informal settings like flea markets and gun shows, but also the Internet — including the dark web.

“Just because you shop for guns with a mouse and not your feet, doesn’t mean you should be able to avoid background checks,” said White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett on a conference call with reporters Monday evening.

There’s no specific number of annual sales that trigger the need for a license, Jarrett said. Rather, a series of criteria might signal the need to register as a dealer, such as whether the seller creates business cards, sells guns in their original packaging, or re-sells guns shortly after buying them.

An individual, Jarrett said, “can sell as few as two firearms or make only one or two transactions and be ‘engaged in the business.’”

The administration could not say how many people would likely be affected by the new measures.

“This is an industry that is shifting and growing,” Lynch told reporters on the call. “Right now, it’s really an Internet loophole. Gun sales are moving online.”

Though it’s unclear whether new guidelines will drive more sellers to get licenses, experts have said, any clarifications could help prosecutors convict those who are flouting the spirit of the law.

But it’s also unclear whether ATF has the resources it needs to step up enforcement. Obama’s FY 2017 budget will call for funding 200 new ATF agents — but that, once again, requires cooperation from a hostile Congress.

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said the funding request is a challenge to opponents of new gun restrictions who say the administration should enforce existing laws.

“They should surely support additional resources supporting the laws that are on the books,” he said. The administration is also seeking an additional $500 million for mental health treatment, noting that two-thirds of gun deaths are suicides.

Another source of uncertainty: How long the new guidance will survive. While some of the president’s actions — requiring background checks for those who buy guns through trusts and requiring licensed dealers to report weapons stolen in transit — the clarification on licenses isn’t a new regulation. That means it can be implemented more quickly because it doesn’t have to go through a public comment period and other bureaucratic delays. But it also means it’d be much easier for a Republicans president to quickly reverse it.

And that’s exactly what some GOP candidates are vowing to do. While the Obama administration says the guidance is rooted in case law, Republicans were decrying the moves as overreach before they were even announced, blasting Obama’s forthcoming actions as lawless and subversive.

Trump assailed the president first thing Monday morning, saying that on the current track, it would soon become impossible for Americans to exercise their Second Amendment rights to carry firearms.

“Well, pretty soon, you won’t be able to get guns. I mean, it’s another step in the way of not getting guns,” the Republican presidential candidate told CNN’s “New Day.” “And, you know, the one thing that is just, before we even get to that, is the executive order concept.”

Obama, Trump continued, should be negotiating an agreement with all sides to work out a solution rather than issuing an executive order.

“You know, it’s supposed to be negotiated; you’re supposed to cajole, get people in a room; you’re supposed to deal with them, you have Republicans, you have Democrats, you have all these people that get elected to do this stuff, and you’re supposed to get together and pass a law,” Trump continued.GOP protests aren't limited to the campaign trail. Ryan, while acknowledging that the details of the plan are still under wraps, said in a statement Monday that Obama is "at minimum subverting the legislative branch, and potentially overturning its will."

"His proposals to restrict gun rights were debated by the United States Senate, and they were rejected," the speaker said, in reference to the failed push for more gun laws in the wake of the 2012 Newtown shooting. "No president should be able to reverse legislative failure by executive fiat, not even incrementally. The American people deserve a president who will respect their constitutional rights — all of them. This is a dangerous level of executive overreach, and the country will not stand for it."

Marco Rubio, meanwhile, used a speech in Hooksett, New Hampshire, on Monday morning to warn that executive actions would restrict the rights of "law-abiding citizens, not the criminals or terrorists who target them."

"The president has not even attempted to point to a single mass shooting these actions would have prevented, because there isn’t one," the Florida senator added.

Even as gun control advocates maintained that the onus on Congress to enact major changes, they’ve been pelting the president with proposals for more things he can do. There are still many items left on their lists, but they praised Monday’s package.

Chelsea Parsons of the Center for American Progress called it “a significant step forward toward making progress to reduce gun violence in this country.”

Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has poured considerable money into campaigns nationwide through his group Everytown to Prevent Gun Violence, said Obama was “listening to the voices of everyday Americans, who are helping to advance common sense gun safety policies in cities and states around the country."

The firearms lobby, including the National Rifle Association, has been reluctant to comment before the details of Obama's plans emerge. But gun control groups decried what they called "mistruths" spread by pro-gun groups.

“We know that the corporate gun lobby, they’ve already started spreading mistruths, distorting reality, and I think the desire from the gun violence prevention movement is to make sure that people aren’t confused, and people aren’t duped into thinking this is something it isn’t,” said Pia Carusone, a co-founder of the gun control group Americans for Responsible Solutions, with former Democratic Rep. Gabby Giffords.

Five years ago Friday, Giffords survived a shooting in Tucson, Arizona, that left six dead.

Eliza Collins, Nick Gass and David Pittman contributed to this report.